Benjamin Carter Hett on Fascism and the Death of Democracy

The Pulaski Institution’s podcast, The Periphery, returned last week. We have some great episodes lined up, but this first one back featured one of my favorite historians: Benjamin Carter Hett.

Benjamin’s work focuses on Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, including works like The Death of Democracy and Burning the Reichstag. Given everything that’s going on, I thought he was about as good a guest as you could hope for to talk about the fragility of democracy and the current global threats to liberal democratic government.

This conversation is much more about history and the idea of democracy than any specific policy. And I think that gives it a lot of value and staying power for what is a rapidly shifting moment for us. We end with a look at the AfD’s strength in polls ahead of the upcoming German elections.

We’ve got future episodes lined up with guests like Hans Hacker, who wrote our Arkansas entry for the 50 Takes on Democracy series, and Sarah Everett, who is currently policy director at the ACLU of Arkansas.